After faltering for several years, the UK economy shows signs of real recovery, with rising spending, investment, exports and even manufacturing growth. At the start of 2014, there seems to be a virtuous circle of falling unemployment, falling inflation, and rising GDP. After one of the longest and deepest recessions on record, these signs of …
Readers Question: As the FED is talking about tapering and at the same time keeping interest rate low. How can they both go together? Tapering will raise yield as bond prices go down in absence of any freak buying. And interest rate will chase yield this causes interest rate to climb up. Fed Tapering means …
A look at the relationship between inflation and unemployment and whether there is a trade off as suggested by Phillips Curve.
The European Union is facing the prospect of a serious bout of deflation (or at least, very low rates of inflation / disinflation) Deflation occurs when prices fall. But, very low rates of inflation are considered to raise problems associated with deflation. In the Eurozone, the main index of inflation has fallen to 0.7% – …
Readers Question: In Risks and benefits of Quantitative easing one point the programme mentioned was: The scale of quantitative easing could make it impossible to sell bonds back to market and this will damage the UK’s ability to borrow in the future. If the UK’s ability to borrow is constrained, this will lead to higher …
There are different ways of looking at the UK recovery. Firstly, we can look at the damage done to the economy since the peak in 2008. The black lines suggests a possible pre-crisis trend rate of economic growth. A rough rule of thumb, suggests that had economic growth been maintained at the pre-crisis trend rate …
To what extent can the government help boost domestic industry and manufacturing? In recent weeks, several politicians have talked about their desire to help UK manufacturing and boost industrial production. It may be a noble endeavour to try and boost UK industry and rebalance the economy away from financial services to manufacturing. But, how practical …
How much is the internet helping to increase productivity? Do distractions like Facebook and Twitter mean the overall benefits of the internet are less than we might hope? How does the internet compare to other technology revolutions, such as stem power and electricity? I often work from a cafe. It’s a nice combination – good …